Treacherous
by EdibleNonsense
Summary: After winning the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, Tien decides to approach his former rivals in order to ask forgiveness. And there's one person in particular who's caught his eye... [Tien Shinhan/Launch]


NOTE: This started off as an AU retelling where Tien had a crush on Launch and spiraled into a retelling of the beginning of the Piccolo Saga. Either way, hope you like it!

* * *

The sun was sinking below the horizon, taking away the last bit of light from the Tournament grounds and leaving the group standing outside the entrance overlaid in red and gold tones. One by one, the crowd dispersed and walked away from the gates, chatting idly as they strolled away from the area.

"Are we all set to go?" Roshi's voice rang out in the crowd.

Tien stood off to the side and out of view, listening intently to what was being said. Next to him, Chiaotzu shuffled on his feet, wondering what the hold-up was. The two had only recently made peace with the Turtle School, but both of them were wary about what to do next. In any other circumstance, Tien would have simply approached the group and offered to join them. But it seemed almost too brazen to invite himself and Chiaotzu along with the group of students he had previously fought against, especially considering how civil they were to him and how ruthless he had been to them. With a wave of fresh shame washing over him, he clutched his belongings, which were slung over his back in a purple wrap.

On the other hand, he had no clue where he was going or what was going to happen after this. He had broken the only connection he had.

Next to Roshi, he saw Yamcha, Goku, and Krillin standing in a small circle, getting situated from the long fight and chatting amongst themselves. Yamcha still was walking around with crutches, from… Tien tightened his grip on his belongings again. At first, he had assumed that they would be furious at him for what had transpired from the moment they all met. But, straining to hear snippets of conversation, Tien realized that they were far more excited about Goku's performance in the final round than anything else.

"That was amazing, I had no idea you were-"

"...Yeah! And that final Kamehameha-"

"Haha! Thanks, I was really focused on my-"

The voices resonated throughout the quieting area, which had been bleeding people ever since the fight wrapped up. Taking a slow breath in, Tien walked out from the area behind the wall he had been standing in. Perplexed by the sudden movement, Chiaotzu started to follow him, but then paused when he saw where he was heading.

"Tien! Are you going to talk to them?" Chiaotzu asked somewhat nervously. "Do you think…"

"The least I can do is try and apologize."

"I understand." Chiaotzu still didn't seem assured, but decided to keep following Tien, who continued to steadily approach the group.

Finally, Tien got within a few feet of the group, who were still conversing. Goku saw him first and his eyes widened. In a split second, Tien started to regret approaching the group and his brain became wracked with possibilities for how to leave the arena without further interaction, until he heard the younger boy's voice call out.

"Tien! It's you!"

Frozen in the headlights, Tien and Chiaotzu stopped short while everyone turned around to look at them.

"Hello." Tien had no idea what to say. He hadn't expected this warm a welcome. Deciding to get right to the point, he slipped an envelope from his bag of personal belongings and held it out towards Goku.

"I believe you should have this."

Walking over and snatching the envelope from his hand, Goku looked at it with a quizzical look on his face. The rest of the group stayed back and watched the unfolding scene without commenting.

"Is this the prize money?" The younger of the two flipped the paper over and back.

"Yes," Tien began, relieved he was able to finally atone in some way for his actions. Even if a financial reward seemed to pale in comparison to a rightfully won title. "I figured since you lost on a technicality, it would only be fair to-"

"Nah, it's ok!"

Completely taken off-guard, Tien blinked.

"I don't really need any money, so you can keep it!" The boy held the envelope back out towards him with a grin on his face. Was he joking? Was this a joke? Tien didn't move.

"A-Are you serious?" he finally asked, unsure of what to say. Even Chiaotzu, who was still standing next to Tien, seemed to be caught off guard by Goku's refusal.

"Yeah!" Staring at Goku's face, Tien realized that he was being serious. His first instinct was to argue, but he realized that would likely do more harm than good at this point. Better to just take him at his word and not insist. Even if it was a bit unorthodox.

"Ok. Thank you." Taking the envelope with his thumb and pointer finger, Tien stuffed it gingerly back into his sling. Realizing he now had the attention of the entire group and nothing else to say, he stood there silently. This situation could not have been more unpredictable if he had tried.

Suddenly, Tien heard a scraping sound. Looking past Goku, he saw Yamcha hobbling over on his crutches with a clean blue suit on. He hadn't seen him since they had previously fought.

Realizing how awkward he would feel at staring at him straight in the eyes, Tien lowered his gaze and concentrated on the stone ground beneath him.

"You fought really well."

Yamcha's voice startled Tien. Whipping his head up, he saw that the man was looking at him with a faint smile.

"I'm sorry about your leg. It doesn't excuse what I did." Tien knew that Yamcha was merely being courteous and wasn't interested in a long list of excuses about how he had gotten up to that point in life still acting that way. No need to make this more awkward than it was already.

"It's alright. Bones heal, just like everything else!"

But he didn't sound like he was just saying this to hand-wave off the incident. Yamcha definitely sounded serious. Suddenly, Tien felt a hand thump him across the chest in a friendly manner and saw Yamcha smiling back at him.

"Next time, we have to have a rematch, though! And it's gotta be a fair fight."

"Of course." Tien felt an indescribable weight fall off him. Never in a million years did he think that Yamcha wouldn't harbor hard feelings toward him. In fact, the entirety of Turtle School seemed to have forgiven him for all his malevolence. The more he realized this, the more it shocked him.

Close to the two boys, Roshi cleared his throat.

For the first time, Tien broadened his gaze to view the entire area that they were standing in. He realized that two women were with the group too, which was more apparent now that the area was practically deserted. One of them he recognized from the fight with Yamcha, Tien thought, recalling her helping him to the hospital after he was injured. She had short-cut teal hair and her hands were at her side, taking the scene in. The other woman…

She stood with her hands on her hips and was glaring in his direction, looking positively suspicious about what was unfolding in front of her. The first thing Tien noticed was her blonde curls tied up with a ribbon that was large enough to stick out of her head, but that was about the only thing about her that seemed delicate. Her green eyes were boring into him with an intensity that felt intimidating. Who was she?

Noticing Tien glancing at the other two members of the group, Yamcha decided to introduce him to them. "This is Bulma over here," pointing to the teal-haired woman, "and this is Launch." He reached a bit around to point at the blonde woman, who suddenly stepped forward and opened her mouth.

"So, are ya interested in joining the Turtle School?" She interrogated, getting closer to Tien. His first instinct was to lean forward for some reason, which confused even him, but instead he stood his ground.

"No, I just came to apologize."

"I see…"

She didn't seem convinced. Next to her, Bulma nudged her in the side.

"Hey, don't do that," she whispered under her breath.

"Alright." Launch shrugged and complied with the suggestion, taking a few steps back. She didn't seem too convinced, but Tien decided to not say anything. He almost felt relieved that someone had spoken up about his actions, even though she obviously wasn't on the mark about his intentions.

"I'm not sure where I'll go after this," Tien stated out loud, half to himself and half to the group.

"I mean, you could come train with us!" Launch spoke up again, swinging her fist in a mock punch. "I saw ya kick ass in the Tournament, I'm sure there's something you could teach us! And vice versa."

"I don't…" It seemed audacious to invite himself to join them, but if someone else happened to ask, then was it such a bad thing? It dawned on him that perhaps she was interested in learning. He tried to imagine her fighting in the Tournament herself.

Looking down at his side, Tien questioned, "Chiaotzu, what do you think?"

"Hmm…" The smaller of the two was gazing at the group with interest on his face. He seemed caught between two ideas himself. Finally, he opened his mouth.

"I wouldn't mind," Chiaotzu simply stated, giving a tiny smile. Smiling back at him, Tien turned his head to the group.

"That sounds good."

"Alright!" Launch cheered, and the rest of the group reacted similarly. Goku raised his fists and jumped up and down while everyone else just smiled at each other. Krillin even reached over to high-five Chiaotzu, who was equally exuberant about the new arrangement. A slow grin crept up Tien's face. He had a good feeling about this, which was something he hadn't been able to say for a long while.

* * *

"Ok, here's the fridge! And the bathroom's over there. And I think… that's about it." Yamcha's voice echoed throughout the almost-silent oceanfront. The group was back at Kame House, getting situated after the plane ride and subsequent boat ride home. At first, the group was going to go out for dinner, but Goku had forgotten his Nyoibo, along with his precious Four Star Ball, in the hotel room. So they all went back to get it, still talking about various plans for training. From there, they ended up leaving the tournament grounds earlier than expected, since they were all so excited to get back to Kame House. Yamcha, Krillin, Goku, and Tien spent almost the whole flight discussing techniques, while Roshi's snores filled the cabin.

Bulma had taken three suitcases for the trip, so she was unpacking them while the boys were talking. Besides her, Krillin and Goku were fiddling with the television by flipping between channels, and Chiaotzu and Roshi were standing around nearby, chatting about the day's events.

Meanwhile, Tien was getting shown around by Yamcha. He had to admit, the island was pretty nice. He couldn't remember the last time he had seen the ocean from so up-close. Being able to hear the rush of water in the background of the conversation calmed him greatly.

"How's it going?" Launch's voice piped up from behind.

Almost jumping at the sound of her voice, Tien turned around. She was standing behind them with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. She really was rather… cute. Cute? Is that the right word? Tien had to admit, he hadn't gotten to know many girls his age. Or really any, if he were being honest with himself. Crane School trained mostly males, with a few exceptions, and none of them were too overjoyed to spend time around Crane Master, even though Tien had never really discovered the reason why. It had taken him years to warm up to Chiaotzu following him around everywhere, and even then, he felt like he was the younger boy's guardian more than anything. The last thing he wanted was to burden him with more of his issues, including talking about his worries. Honestly, the more he thought about it, the more he agreed that it was a good thing he had agreed to go with the Turtle School students. It felt nice to have other people to rely on.

"It's going well!" Yamcha answered. "Just showing Tien here around." With his free hand, Yamcha slugged Tien's shoulder in a friendly punch. Meanwhile, Tien stood still and tried to think of something casual enough to talk about.

"Do you want to join us?" He finally settled on a simple question.

Launch blinked in surprise.

"Sure!" Shrugging her shoulders, she pointed around the room and asked, "What are we lookin' at now?"

"Just the regular, like the bathroom and kitchen and stuff." Yamcha kept walking around, careful to not slip on the floor with his crutches. "Oh shoot." He stopped in his tracks.

"What is it?" Launch replied.

"Oh, it's stupid, but I just remembered I was going to call someone at the hospital really quick to check something. My knee was making this clicking sound a few hours ago and-"

From her seat on the floor, Bulma yelled out, "Go call! They're only open for another hour, I think."

Sighing in a sign of acceptance, Yamcha straightened his crutches and turned to walk away. Still standing with her arms crossed, Launch watched him hobble towards the front of the house so he could use his giant cell phone with better reception. A moment of silence followed.

"So…" Launch started to say to Tien, who was still standing next to her like a mannequin, almost holding his breath as he realized they were left alone. Everyone else was out of earshot.

"When you asked about training…" Tien hesitantly questioned, "were you serious?" The thought had been in his mind ever since the conversation on the Tournament grounds.

"I mean, duh. I already can take care of myself," she said with a semi-terrifying grin, "but it would be helpful to learn some other techniques. Maybe ones that rely less on weapons, ya know…"

"I see." Tien tried to collect his thoughts in order to ask the next part of his question. "Would you like to train with me?"

"Hell yeah!" Her eyes lit up and Tien's heart skipped a beat at the sight. She immediately started to walk to the yard, signaling for him to follow with a wave of her hand. Unsure of what else to do, he trailed after her and watched as she stood close to the water on the shore.

"Ok, you see that big-ass rock over there?" She pointed out over the waves that were currently lapping at her feet. Far off in the distance, Tien could make out a jagged boulder veering out of the ocean. It only seemed to be a few feet wide, and the tide was rushing around it. It seemed like a strange thing to point out, but Tien was starting to piece together what she was trying to ask.

"I don't think-" He was loath to shoot her idea down, but his first instinct told him to disagree. It was too far away for a beginner to safely reach, even with his help.

"I know it's possible! You all managed to do it!" She shot back.

"Have you ever focused your ki before?"

"I-" She stopped short. "I mean, what's there to it?"

"Well…" Tien cast his mind back to his first few lessons with Shen. If he were being honest with himself, he could barely remember what it had been like to learn the basics all those years ago. The most he could recall was a brief period of time where he had struggled with levitation, probably around a decade ago. That was before his master's insistence on perfecting the craft, along with a stern warning that he had the responsibility to set an example as the Crane School's star pupil, left him unable to think of anything but practicing it for days on end. He could still remember the feeling of the rain and mud against his skin as he sat in the storms outside away from the other students, trying to concentrate. The cold had seeped through his tunic and socks, but he kept trying over and over in the twilight of the setting sun, until he was finally able to conjure up just the slightest bit of height off the ground. Exhausted but satisfied with his progress, he hadn't even walked back to the main dojo for the night, but sat under the stars in the cool breeze until he eventually fell asleep.

Shaking his head a little, he brought himself back to the present. There was no way in hell he was going to have her be subjected to that, he realized, looking directly at her eager expression.

"Let's go slow." Settling down in the sand, he put his hands in his lap. Launch, excited to start, sat down facing him.

"If I remember correctly, the first thing you have to do is quiet your mind. Don't think of anything other than the energy flowing in you. Once you tap into it, it's a lot easier to channel your ki."

"Ok," Launch sounded slightly confused, but followed suit. She crossed her legs and screwed her eyes shut tightly with her hands clenched at her sides, like she was about to deck someone.

"Just… relax." Tien had to clarify, sensing she thought the skill depended on intensity rather than concentration.

Sighing, she tried to follow his instructions. Pressing her hands flat down in the sand, her eyebrows and nose settled back into a more neutral state while she took a deep breath in. All at once, her whole expression shifted and Tien could tell she was really trying to focus on her ki. It was tough for a newcomer to feel at ease with it at first, and he could tell she was a bit out of her comfort zone, but she was doing better than he expected. A few quiet minutes passed. Tien was listening to the sound of the waves behind them while keeping an eye on Launch's face. She looked very… peaceful. Just as he was about to open his mouth to tell her what to do next, she let out a loud groan and slumped forwards.

"Launch?" Worry laced his voice as he jumped up from the ground.

"Ugh, dammit!" She punched the sand with a fist.

Tentatively reaching out, Tien froze in place. Was she hurt?

"I'm ok," she offhandedly confirmed, seeing him lunge towards her. "I just… I thought I had it and then it slipped away!" Putting her hands on her head, she rubbed them back and forth through her hair in anger.

"That's not unusual," he stated, going to sit back down and feeling embarrassed he had reacted so dramatically. Obviously nothing was wrong. No need to jump up like that. His voice more collected now, he continued by explaining, "No one masters it on the first try."

"Yeah, true…" she mumbled. Leaning her head all the way back so that her face was turned directly upward, she gazed up at the sky. "Well. At least it's a nice day out."

"I agree." He also glanced up near the clouds overhead, slightly covering the sun's rays peeking out from underneath it. It had been sunnier when they had first sat down. Weird. Tien still wasn't used to how different the weather was on the island.

"Huh." Launch's voice punctuated the quietness.

"What is it?" Tien asked, still distracted by the rolling clouds.

"Who the hell is that?"

Her neck was twisted around to stare towards the front of the island where the entrance of Kame House was. Tien followed her gaze and saw a massive green mutant of some sort with wings standing near the waves breaking on the shore. He was wearing what seemed to be a martial artist's outfit, but had scales all over his head and bare shoulders. His right claw was clenched around a thick stack of papers that were ruffling in the breeze as he slowly walked towards the two. At first, he approached them slowly, but immediately began picking up speed as soon as he caught them staring at him. Tien and Launch jumped to their feet, suddenly realizing that he was definitely an intruder and not a friendly visitor.

"Who are you?!" Tien called out. The man didn't answer, but instead growled and bared his teeth, which they could see were spiked and gnarled even from far away. With a wave of his hand, he sent a ki blast towards Tien. Barely jumping out of the way in time, Tien got in position to retaliate with his own attack. Behind him, he could hear Launch yell in surprise and the sharp pop of a capsule opening. Taking the unanswered question as a sign to aim to kill, Tien started charging up a ki blast in retaliation. However, he was startled when he heard the metallic sound of bullets flying past him and saw them ricochet off the mutant's chest, completely failing to make even a scratch.

"Foolish."

His voice was a deep baritone, laced with smugness. With ki radiating from his hands, he slowly sauntered closer to them and continued to speak.

"So this island does house a participant. And from what I see, a powerful one at that…"

Participant? Tien's mind raced. He must be talking about the World Martial Arts Tournament, but how would he have gotten the list of all the martial artists who had been in it? And why was he here?

"Shut the hell up!"

Tien could make out Launch standing directly to the right of him now. Her voice sounded a lot more confident than he had expected, considering how strange the situation was.

"And who exactly are you?" The man sneered, a look of confusion briefly passing over his face. "I know you from somewhere… a poster or…" Glancing back down at the papers as if he were trying to remind himself of something, he shook his head.

"Forget about it," he continued, dismissing the thought.

Another round of ammunition rang out, but it didn't deter him from taking another step closer. Then another. His sneer had turned into a full-blown smile, sensing how both of them were caught unaware. Deciding he had let this man move as close as he thought was safe, Tien instantly brought his hands together in front of his face and in one fluid motion yelled, "Solar Flare!"

A burst of light rendered the area surrounding the three blindingly white. Tien, who had closed his eyes and was unfazed by the attack, instinctively ran forward in order to deliver the finishing blow to the man. Snapping his eyes open, he saw that… no one was standing there.

Suddenly, a large arm wrapped around his neck from behind and a voice whispered in his ear.

"Too slow."

Quickly, Tien tried to reach his arms around, but he could only scrap his fingernails along the man's arm, who was holding him in a one-handed headlock with his forearm. His free hand was pressed against Tien's back, which currently now felt like molten hot magma was rolling down it. Doing his best to suppress his increasing anxiety, Tien tried to break out of the hold, but the man had the advantage of height over him and none of Tien's blows were affecting the man's scaled arms.

"Are there others?" The man hissed, still applying pressure to his hold. Tien could feel himself struggling to breathe.

"What do you mean?" Tien eked out, hoping no one else inside the house had heard the struggle occuring outside so as not to break the illusion that he and Launch were the only ones here. In another moment of fear, he realized Launch was still on the ground a few feet away, recovering from the spur of the moment attack.

With a click of his tongue, the man tightened his grip once again. "Hmm." He seemed to be mulling over his choices.

"Shit!" Launch's panicked voice rang out from behind the two. Completely caught unaware that Tien was about to use that specific attack, she was still hunched over on the ground rubbing her now temporarily blinded eyes.

"Launch!" Tien struggled to get enough air to yell. "Don't-"

_Crack._

His body slumped to the ground. Still crouching on the sand, Launch gave her eyes one last rub and blinked as fast as she could, machine gun still in hand. What the hell was that noise? Stumbling to her feet, her finger quickly found the gun's trigger and she focused on the figure getting increasingly closer to her.

"Blast. I traveled all this way for only one?"

The man's voice sent chills down her spine. Still struggling to see in broad daylight, Launch could only focus on the footsteps coming up from her right side. The ruffle of papers signaled to her that it was the same man. Shooting in the direction she thought she heard him walking, Launch took a step forward. The only sound resonating on the island was the sound of bullets bouncing off the man's chest.

"Your bullets do nothing," he coldly informed her, sounding completely unconcerned as he walked towards the crashing waves, a hint of a smile tugging at his lips.

After getting a running start, he bounded off into the air, his wings propelling him forward. Launch stood still in fear, now that her eyesight has recovered enough, watching him fly off out over the ocean. From directly behind her, she could hear multiple pairs of footsteps approaching her in the sand. Too numb to turn around, she stood with her face to the sea.

"What the hell is going on here?" Bulma yelled exasperatedly as she approached Launch. "Are you two doing target practice-" She stopped in her tracks as she saw Tien laying face down a few feet away.

"Tien?" Yamcha's voice sounded far away. He was gripping tightly onto his crutches, like they were in danger of slipping out from under him.

"Is he…" Bulma couldn't finish her sentence. She trailed off into silence while still staring at the ground.

Launch still couldn't move. Her mouth felt dry.

"Launch!" Bulma ran up besides her and shook her by the shoulders, turning her around to face the two of them. Her voice now sounded borderline hysterical. "What happened?!"

"I…" She tried to muster up the words to explain what just occurred.

"What's all the ruckus out here?" Disturbed by the yelling he could hear from the porch, Roshi came traipsing out of the back door of Kame House with Chiaotzu following behind. Krillin and Goku had taken notice too, and were hurrying to catch up with the two.

Stepping closer, Roshi saw the spectacle laid out before him and stopped in his tracks. Realizing in a second that Chiaotzu was behind him, Roshi carefully raised his hand a bit below his waist to cover where the shorter of the two's eyeline was aimed.

"What is it?" Chiaotzu strained to see. Roshi continued to move his hand while giving a quick nod to Yamcha. Taking off his jacket, Yamcha laid it gently over the body.

Deep sorrow washed over Roshi. This young man didn't deserve such a cruel and cold death, with the indignity of laying facedown on the now-bloodstained sand. Finally, unable to keep Chiaotzu from seeing any longer, he held his hand down.

"Tien!" Chiaotzu cried, running to the man's side. Stopping short a foot from the jacket-covered body, he held his hands out in anticipation, as if he were expecting the one person he cared about most in the world to jump up and admit he was fine any second now. Tears in eyes, he fell to his knees, unable to say anything else.

Squeezing her gun's barrel with one hand and the handle in the other, Launch stood with her eyes locked on the ground away from the body. Her face hadn't changed since Bulma had grabbed her by the shoulders, but if anyone looked closely, they would be able to see that her hands were shaking.

"What did he look like?" Yamcha roughly spit out. "I'll kill that bastard myself."

"He was just… a demon. With wings." Launch's senses were returning to her. "He was tall and green, and he-" She stopped short.

"What?" Bulma gently prodded.

"He said something about… the Tournament participants."

"The World Martial Arts Tournament?" Roshi asked incredulously. Taking a step forward, he furrowed his eyebrows and clenched his right fist out in front of the group. "He must have been after the prize money! That damn son of a-"

"No, no, he wasn't. He never mentioned that. He had a list of the people who were in it."

"But he didn't try to kill any of us?" Yamcha's eyes widened, realizing how close he, Goku, and Krillin, with the latter of the two standing in shock behind him, were to being hurt.

"He asked, but Tien…" Her voice trailed off, thinking about his exact words.

"What?" Bulma questioned, walking closer to her friend.

"He didn't give up the fact that anyone else was here. That stupid bastard." Clenching her teeth in a sudden fit of emotion, she finally let tears drip down from her eyes. "That stupid…!" She turned her face to the ground.

"It's alright." Roshi's voice was uncharacteristically empathetic. "As long as the Dragon Balls can be collected, there's nothing that can't be undone."

"Yeah!" Bulma joined in, heartened by his response. Even Krillin and Goku were nodding, tentatively optimistic. Even though whoever did this was still out there somewhere, as long as they could wish Tien back, not all hope was lost. They wouldn't let it end like this.

"Alright."

Taking a deep breath in, Launch's hand found the capsule in her pocket and she clicked it open to see her full arsenal laid out in front of her.

If it was a fight this man wanted, it was a fight he would get.


End file.
